Chat with Santa

Raegan was so thrilled to see Santa! Here is a video of part of their chat. It cracks me up that she told him she is three years old. I have never heard her say that before. Once she told a server at a restaurant that she is 49. Oi!

Chat with Santa

7th annual Xmas party

We did so much preparation that I was out of energy by the time the party started, so I forgot to take pictures of our guests. They did come, though, abut 40+. It was a wonderful celebration of friends and family! I tried some new appetizers, including bacon wrapped potato bites with a dill dip, artichoke turnovers, and my very first cheese ball (cranberry-cheddar)! For cookies, we made the traditional sugar cookies which Raegan enjoyed helping with, and a new recipe I haven't made before of chocolate peppermint thumb prints. All delicious, if I do say so myself! Raegan hung out with the adults until about 9:30, at which point I had to bribe her with a sugar cookies to get her upstairs. When she woke up the next morning and came down stairs, she said, "Where is everybody?"

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas performance

Raegan had her very first Christmas performance at her pre-school. It is a class of 2-3 year olds, and in the begining it was mostly a lot of crying, lol. But Raegan was a trooper and she did some singing. It was very cute. Afterwards we had snacks and cookies. Don't mind the little guy standing in front of her the entire time....


Christmas video

Snow storm in Cali

Although the mountains and foothills typically get snow in the winter, it is pretty rare to get snow in the valley. A few weeks ago we had a storm come through and it actually snowed at our house (it did not stick, however). But, for the football game we went to Jeff's in the foothills and they had plenty of snow to play in. Raegan didn't want to go inside, as she wanted to keep sledding and trying to build a snowman. Hopefully there will also be some snow for her when we go to Illinois in a few days!

Turkey day fun

We missed my mom's company for this Thanksgiving, but we enjoyed the company of Meghan, Tarik, Sheri, Shannon, Lance, Camden, and Shannon! Our little get together was a delicious success. We attempted to play some games after dinner, but we were all in a turkey coma. Aside from some very nice weather, not much else to report! here are some pics...

18 weeks with baby #2

I haven't posted any baby bump pics yet, but the bump has been pretty apparent since about 10 weeks which is when I announced it at work. Here I am at 18 weeks! I feel like May is a long way off, but I keep reminding myself that after Christmas break, I will only have 3 months of work before I'm off for maternity leave. I'm sure it will go fast!

We have decided not to go with a planned home birth this time around, mostly for financial reasons. We have selected the OB that helped to deliver Raegan, and after a very long discussion with my midwife, we both feel this is a choice we are comfortable with. The first trimester of this pregnancy was almost exactly the same as with R, but the second trimester has been totally different. I am showing a lot more, for one thing, but also I am not nearly as hungry. When I wake up in the morning, it can be a few hours before I even want to eat anything. Although I have eaten some sweets since second trimester, I can usually take it or leave it, and for the sake of health, I tend to leave it. We aren't going to find out the gender of the baby before the delivery, but my inclination is that it is a boy. Raegan also thinks it is a boy, and she thinks we should name him Matt. :) We have a (secret) boy name already picked out, too! We can not quite agree on a girl name. We also can't agree on where we will put this baby, since all of the bedrooms are currently taken. In the beginning the baby will sleep in our room anyway, but we need to set up an area with a dresser/changing table and rocking chair. This will be my project after the holidays!

Yee-Haw!

For Halloween Raegan chose to dress as a cow girl, which is quite fitting since she is just in love with horses! So I found her a cute pink cow girl costume, which went great with the pink and brown cow girl boots that Papa bought her over the summer. :) Its pretty safe to say that every day for the past week and a half Raegan has been asking to go trick or treating. She was VERY excited about the candy. The costume was really just a means to that end. Shannon, Carlee, Camden, and Shari came over on Halloween for some pizza and trick or treating. While everyone was finishing up eating, Raegan had a really good time helping me hand out candy. I was surprised because I thought she might not want to give away the candy, but turns out she thought it was pretty neat. At one point she was standing on the font porch with candy in her hands yelling for more kids to come.

She did great when it came to trick or treating, maybe a bit over zealous at times. After one neighbor let her choose the candy out of the bowl instead of putting it into Raegan's pumpkin, she was ready to grab out of any candy bowl that got near her. And she was fast. Before I knew what was happening she would have shoveled three handfuls of candy into her bucket. Luckily she's little and cute, so she could get away with that sort of thing. After every house, she would say, "Mommy, I need MORE candy!!" At the end of the night we came home and she dumped her bucket of candy on the floor and shared with everyone, which I thought was really sweet. When I was a kid, you would have had to pry that candy out of my cold dead hands. Happy Halloween!!

Fall Festivities

I heart fall! It is one of my most favorite times of the year, and living in Northern California makes it even better. One of my faves is going to Apple Hill for the harvesting of the apples. It is about a one hour drive up the hill for apple goodness of everything one can imagine. There are crafters and food vendors, and Raegan's favorite- Pony rides. It was a beautiful Fall day when we went up, just Matt, Raegan, Jasen and me. We walked around looking at the vendors and eating caramel apples. Matt and Jasen had what smelled like the most delicious apple fritter. We packed a picnic and ate at Rainbow farm on a picnic table outside. Before we left we were sure to buy some apple butter and apple cider from Boa Vista Orchard. Raegan certainly enjoyed eating all of the caramel off of the apple!

Part of our fall tradition is to visit Aunt Meg, so we did that in October as well! It was fun to hang with Meg and have her feed us delicious food all weekend. :) There wasn't much on our agenda, except eating and hanging out which was just fine with me!

The last weekend in October we went to Bishops Pumpkin Farm which is maybe the most perfect kids fall festival I've ever been to. The Farm is set up beautifully with picnic tables, lots of shade trees, huge pumpkin patches and lots of activities. Raegan rode the ponies there as well... and we all rode the train which takes you around the farm and the pumpkin patches. She also loved feeding the farm animals, particularly the goats! There is a hay jump, which is really a bunch of mattresses covered in hay the kids go bouncing around all over the place. Usually we go on the hay ride last, which takes us to the acres of pumpkins to pick one to go home, but Raegan had missed a nap and was too tired to finish it out. Maybe some day Grandma and Papa and will be here to go with us....it is the best time! The apple cider slushies and the salt water taffy are my favorites!

Baby #2!

Jasen and I are expecting our second baby in May! We are very excited (and I have been very sick)! The nausea is starting to get better as I'm nearing the end of the first trimester....thank goodness! We are not going to find out the gender during this pregnancy either, so it will be a surprise again. Honestly, it is the best surprise! We have told Raegan, and although I'm sure she doesn't understand, she does say that there is a baby in mommy's tummy. Here is a picture of her randomly telling Meghan that she has a baby in her tummy! Ha! When asked if she wants a little brother or a little sister, she says she wants a BIIIIIG sister.

Raegan slide show

Just thought I would throw together a little slide show of some of my favorite picks from the last 6 months or so! Turn on your sound :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NtzHSB8pag&feature=youtu.be

Itsy bitsy spider

Next stop, American idle. ;) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFCFoTc6svQ

A special birthday

When I was in college, I sent out a "thought for the day" to some of my friends and family each day. I liked searching for quotations that were moving or thought provoking. So, for Jasen's 40th birthday, I selected a "thought" to share....


to Jasen....

"Each life is a language no one knows. With every heartbreak, discovery and unexpected moment of joy, with every lift of music that touches us where we didn't think we could be touched, with every experience, another letter in our alphabet is decoded. Take a step; learn a word. Feel a feeling; decode a sign. Accept a truth; translate a piece of the mystery written in your heart.
Before we live what's next, it always seems like there is some answer we need to arrive at. But daring to enter, we are humbled to discover, again and again, that the act of living itself unravels both the answer and the question. When we watch, we remain riddles to be solved. When we enter, we become songs to be sung.
When life feels far off, remember that a flute is just something hard with holes until it's played. So, too, the heart. As matches are just sticks until lit, as ice is not quenching until thawed, questions and problems remain obstacles only until lived."

~Mark Nepo

Phoenix weekend

I had the pleasure of getting to spend a long weekend with a dear old friend of mine....my sister, Lindsey! It had started as a girls weekend with a good friend of mine that I work with, and then she invited her daughter and I invited Lindz. It was kind of like old times....and I say old times because it has been a very long time since I have been able to spend that much time with Lindsey. I think it was when she was living in Phoenix, still talking about starting med school.....so, it was a looooong time ago. Aside from being extremely nauseous and tired (thanks for putting up with me, Lindz), I had a really great time! We stayed at the camelback inn, which is beautiful and the spa is amazing. Highly recommended!! Raegan stayed home with Daddy and Matt, and they had a busy weekend of fun activities themselves. Here are a few pics....

Illinois summer

Raegan and I went for a two week visit to Illinois to see our family and friends. It was fun to see everyone and get to spend some time catching up. Grandma T had her 95th birthday party while we were there, and it was great to be a part of that! Also, the Von Behren family reunion occurred during our trip, so we were able to see a lot of family that we had not seen in quite a long time. Raegan enjoyed seeing the kids and playing in Aunt Theresa's sand box! All in all, we did a lot of swimming, eating, and playing outside. One of Raegan's favorite things to do was go out to my Mom's garden and pick blackberries (and eat them of course!). She also enjoyed helping pick strawberries and beans, although the bean she picked turned out to be a rather large onion. Ha! She also learned about the game of ping pong (known to her as chasing a small ball all over the place, I'm sure). Ben and Andi came for both weekends that we were there, and Raegan became their little shadow. She really loved playing with their dog Yadi, per usual. I still think we need to get her a little dog of her own, one that she can chase and play with. Our dog, Roxy, is getting older and only has a little bit of chasing left in her!

While we were there, Raegan talked Uncle Steve into taking us out on his boat, as she saw the boats at the Press Club and wanted to go out on the lake soooo badly! Every time we drove past the lake (which is quite often since my parents live quite close to it) she would say she wanted to ride on the boat. :)

Papa wanted to buy her some cowgirl boots while we were home, and we had a fun shopping trip with that. Once she had the boots on, she proclaimed, "I wanna ride a horse!" I wish we could have made that happen, but maybe next trip.....

This was the first year that Jasen and Matt didn't go back with us for our trip, so it felt like it wasn't quite the same. Hopefully Jasen will be able to go back with us around Christmas time! 

Here are a few pics from our trip!